Field of the Invention
The invention relates to creating and treating wounds.
Related Art
Wound healing is a dynamic process involving many factors and cell types including soluble mediators, blood cells, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, and extracellular matrix. Normal wound healing is divided into several sequential phases that overlap in space and time: homeostasis, inflammation, granulation tissue formation, and tissue remodeling. Chronic wounds develop as a result of defective regulation of one or more of the complex molecular and biological events involved in proper healing.
Chronic wounds in diabetics are one of the most common complications. Diabetic foot ulcers and other similar chronic wounds impact ˜6.5M people and cost ˜$25 B/year in the US alone. The critical need for a cure of diabetic chronic wounds is underlined by the continuous increase in type II diabetes which accounts for 90-95% of all diabetes. Challenges in doing research and understanding these problematic wounds result from varying disease etiologies, existing co-morbidities and, importantly difficulties with human tissue collection. For the most part, a clinician sees the patient when the wound is already at an advanced stage of chronicity and critical evidence of causality is already lost.
Oxidative and nitrosative stress that make up the redox environment have been at the epicenter of numerous diseases. Maintaining balance of the redox state in the body is a challenge and hence a variety of methods and drugs have been used to meet this need for balance.